Antics of Dream Flyers
Dedication
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀To all dream adventurers,
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀especially frequent flyers
Acknowledgement
I cheerfully acknowledge the elementary school students who illustrated their dream travels and cued me about their stories when I visited their schools in the Poets-in-the-Schools Program. Written cues ranged from thought bubbles, as in “Acrobatic,” to a run-on sentence, as in “Aeronautic.” I made notes of oral cues and kept true to the students’ word choices (though not always to their grammar) when writing the corresponding poems. I thank the parents who gave permission to use these materials for a book I planned to compile. That family names are not given is due to the children’s practice of signing papers for the homeroom teacher with their first name only.
Concordance
A concordance of poem titles within Antics of Dream Flyers, together with the poem’s action.
Acrobatic
⠀⠀⠀⠀balancing
Aeronautic
⠀⠀⠀⠀speeding
Anesthetic
⠀⠀⠀⠀floating
Angelic
⠀⠀⠀⠀just be
Apoplectic
⠀⠀⠀⠀steaming
Comic
⠀⠀⠀⠀ascending
Cryptic
⠀⠀⠀⠀spotting
Emphatic
⠀⠀⠀⠀meditating
Fantastic
⠀⠀⠀⠀parading
Frantic
⠀⠀⠀⠀swinging
Galactic
⠀⠀⠀⠀traveling
Gigantic
⠀⠀⠀⠀soaring
Gymnastic
⠀⠀⠀⠀bouncing
Hectic
⠀⠀⠀⠀flying
Heroic
⠀⠀⠀⠀apologizing
Horrific
⠀⠀⠀⠀escaping
Panoramic
⠀⠀⠀⠀migrating
Prophetic
⠀⠀⠀⠀fleeing
Romantic
⠀⠀⠀⠀dancing
Backstory
Early in 2016 I had a project that required more than editing. Ruby, a 92-year-old woman and last year’s Silver Queen at the State Fair, wanted notes and news clippings extracted from a jumble in several boxes and organized into a memoir.
Following that, I was prompted to deal with my own boxes of notes — 18 boxes of dream notes over a period of 45 years. I made two starts, but came to a screeching halt on both.
To get the creative juices flowing, I assembled the book Antics of Dream Flyers, based on offerings of 3rd and 4th graders when I was in the Poets-in-the-Schools Program. That was fun, and I hoped the light-heartedness would sustain me when I resumed efforts on my own manuscript.
My enthusiasm didn’t last long. I wanted fun, not an obsession, and put away the materials between Halloween and December 1st. It was my eldest son who encouraged me and gave me a different point of view for the next version of the book.
Three versions and five years later, after countless revisions, those 18 boxes have become Dream Encounters.
